IAdea, Star Semi Announce BitTorrent Chip

IAdea Corp., a licensee of the BitTorrent protocol, said last week that it would begin sampling a BitTorrent-optimized chip with Star Semiconductor in March.

IAdea Corp., a licensee of the BitTorrent protocol, said last week that it would begin sampling a BitTorrent-optimized chip with Star Semiconductor in March.

The Star STR91810/20 chip family consists of an ARM922-based core, network interface and dual USB 2.0 high-speed ports. Each will feature different levels of BitTorrent optimization.

Both chips will be marketed at Internet appliances and home routers, such as the Netgear and and competing routers that already feature BitTorrent support. By programming those products with the appropriate BitTorrent torrent file, a router or dedicated appliance can download the file without the need for a PC.

"New digital appliances utilizing our chip work cooperatively to deliver large media files," said John C. Wang, chief executive of IAdea, in a statement.

"This new service architecture is infinitely scalable, delivers faster as more users join, and can be built at a fraction of the cost of a traditional server farm," Wang added. "We see this trend emerging as 'Web 3.0' where each consumer becomes part of a universal content storage and delivery system. Our new chip plays part in the new paradigm by making BitTorrent available efficiently and economically. You should not be surprised if you find your next car or cellphone enabled with our technology."

How the chips will be "optimized" was not made clear; however, given the short history of the BitTorrent-optimized router market, it appears that the chips will simply be programmable to allow independent downloading of files.

Both chips will be priced at $8.75 each in 1,000-unit quantities, IAdea said.